Summary
You can’t end world poverty with $27. But…
One man asked 42 stoolmakers how much money they’d need to break out of the cycle of poverty. It would take $27. But since they had no collateral, the banks wouldn’t loan them money; and they had been at the mercy of predatory money lenders who charged high interest rates that drove them deeper into debt.
And so, he started Grameen Bank, a for-profit anti-poverty bank with an innovative model that used small accountability groups as a form of collateral. This resulted in a 96% repayment rate, broke millions of people out of the cycle of poverty, earned the bank millions per year, and snagged Mo the Nobel Peace Prize.
So… you can.
The Full Story
Muhammad Yunus: Lifting People Worldwide out of Poverty
What began with a loan of $27 to 42 women in a small village 33 years ago has grown into a global microcredit movement that has changed the lives of millions of poor people around the world.